“Ted and I talked about me filling in for him at Wesleyan University earlier this week,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “Considering what he’s done for me and for our country, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him. So I’m looking forward to standing in his place on Sunday even though I know I won’t be able to fill his shoes.”

EDIT: President Roth confirms via email:

It gives me great pleasure to announce that on Sunday, May 25, 2008, United States Senator Barack Obama will deliver the Commencement Address at the 176th Commencement Ceremony at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

Senator Obama is honored to speak on behalf of United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who was previously scheduled to deliver the address.

As a blogger myself who has often been criticized for responses to things that are too quick and idiosyncratic, I don’t want to come down too hard on you. But — allowing for the fact that students were drunk and undoubtedly overreacted because of that — that the police showed up with dogs, tasers and pepper spray in the first place is outrageous. Tasers are sometimes a lethal weapon, not a harmless crowd-control device. Pepper spray, if it gets in the eyes, can cause permanent damage. To be attacked and bitten by a dog is a terrifying and possibly life-changing experience. At its worst, the party was a noise nuisance: students were not trying to interfere with a function of government, nor were they doing anything more harmful than being a pain in the ass to some of their neighbors. Students did not deserve riot control tactics typical of Birmingham in the 1960’s or the West Bank for acting as kids do when they are confronted by authority. While I wish our students had simply been compliant and not escalated the confrontation, not being deferential to unreasoning, violent authority should not make anyone — Wesleyan students or Middletwon citizens — subject to assault and battery by the police.

The Middletown Police response is a function of the ways law enforcement in general has been amped up in the past eight years by Homeland Security money, using a non-existent threat of domestic terrorism as an excuse. The MPD used this as an excuse to make an example of Wesleyan students — nothing more, nothing less. And an argument that says the students deserved it because they didn’t follow orders is just absurd. If your kid doesn’t do what you say, do you have the moral — much less the legal — right to whip him?

There is tremendous resentment of Wesleyan in Middletown, something the university has been trying to address and needs to keep working on, and in this case, the MPD are the leading edge of that resentment. But there are two issues internal to Wesleyan that also need to be addressed: Wesleyan Public Safety’s decision making here, and their possible grievances in terms of what they have to deal with all year (rudeness, aggression from students when they are trying to do their jobs) in relation to such events while also being available 24-7 to be cab drivers, open locked dorm doors, and transport students in various states of inebriation and disrepair; and the possible consequences of Wesleyan’s policy of selling off its houses, which will bring private homeowners in Middletown into closer contact with student events like this one.

Claire PotterProfessor of History and American StudiesWesleyan University

Names and charges have been released on the WTNH website. In the meantime, we’re not posting them here.

Rashida Richardson ’08 has a first-person account up at The Prereq. Excerpt:

“I called 911 telling them that students were getting injured and I was bit by a dog, and she said police were already there, they weren’t going to send more. EMT and EMS were at the end of the street (at Church) but they couldn’t get in to Fountain because they were blocked by a line of police cars…”

“The police were telling us that we had to leave [Fountain] because if there were an emergency, an ambulance wouldn’t be able to get through, but here they were creating this emergency.

“Later when I told a cop one of your dogs bit me, he said ‘You shouldn’t have been in the street.’

“I explained how I have freedom of assembly and [the street] is Wesleyan-owned, and I was on the sidewalk anyway. He said that I have ‘the right to shut the fuck up.’

What we thought were paintballs were pepper balls (filled with pepper gas)

When the first shots were fired, it was blogged that pepper spray was being dispersed. I’m not entirely convinced it was pepper spray because it was this huge plume of white mist that rose into the air and was dispensed from a canister. Sounds like tear gas to me, but I don’t know.

It’s been confirmed that dog bites put at least one student in the hospital

“the PSafe Officer I asked said that legally they are required to assist the MPD in any way they require once called. They were following the “chaos/riot” procedure according to him.”

Bottles (or cups of beer) were thrown at MPD cars, one when they first pulled on to the street and one right as shots were fired

When MPD decided to take action, they formed a loose row across Fountain with the two K9 units flanking each side. Then they walked up until they hit the mob of students, and that’s when everything went to hell

PSafe was filming on videocameras

The smoke bomb was probably set off by a student

The student who was asking for badge numbers wasn’t getting an answer; He was asking over and over again and the officer wouldn’t replykept saying “Middletown Police”

The kid who broke/kicked out the door of the cop car was the first guy who was arrested (He’s the one being sat on by like 5 cops in the pictures) Clarification: He was tackled and arrested first, and then broke the door after he was taken into the car.

huge block party on fountain celebrating end of finals; psafe was hanging out for a while trying to clear people out of the road.

then 10 middletown police cars came

they’re lined up on the street now

(seriously! 10!)nice cop huddle going down, chatting with psafe. mpd is carrying huge paintball guns. everyone is just kind of standing on the side of the street, yelling and watching“i think that the spectacle of having so many cop cars is having the opposite of the intended effect. like, all the parties are still going on”

clapping and cheering

11 cop cars now.

car alarm going off. everyone’s watching from houses. a nice psafe guy told us to leave the area/stand back. lots of cameras/videocams out

party is STILL going on. 2 more cop cars looks like they came from the other direction but it could be the ones from before. people dancing in front of psafe cameras and chanting.

Smoke bomb in the middle of the streetK9 unit just showed up.

Dogs barking, megaphone order to disperse. Mace brandished. General Disarray. Continued bustle of people. Please send any photos not taken with phone to wesleying@gmail

Angry students yelling at PSAFE to get police out of here. Pepper spray dispersed. Some violent words. Students restraining other students.

STudents yell about fucking pigs, dogs chasing more people.

Drunk people yelling really, really irately about their rights. “can’t even breathe because of that shit they put in the air” car alarm goes off again. Students apparently under arrest.One wesleying reporter has to vacate due to asthma.More shots. Some kind of laser sighted weapon.*DO THEY HAVE TASERS?????*

another student under rrest, more docile.kicking out the window of a fucking cop car, one in the car is kicking. pain compliance tactics being used.Broke the frame of the cop car door, though not the window. Some SLC punk shit right there. Screaming about pigs continues.

Laser guided weapons are in fact TASERS. be-fucking-ware.

Dudes with hats arrive, PD from another town most likely, or state police. First arrested student driven away, presumably to jail.

Students asking for badge numbers. very know-your-rights mentality being enacted here. Someone is filming. People asking why, etc. etc.

PSAFE still on scene. Sirens in distance. No more car alarms.

Jose Chapa definitely on some students minds, yelling. One arrested student apparently pepper sprayed and then had dog released on him while he was down. Also, paintball gun/ beanbag pain compliance devices definitely fired.

Also, confirm that the dudes with hats are the staties.

2:45 am: computer died for a sec. running off power from a woodframe. cops have left fountain street proper; cluster of cars with lights on still on church. two ambulances. at least 3 student arrests. party on fountain: still going (music from houses, people on street). people walking to police dept, roth’s house. don’t know how much of this is hearsay so take it with a grain of salt: two students tasered, one in ER(??? one of the arrested students was def bleeding from the head) Psafe doing PR, amiably talking with students, saying basically no mutual respect shown between MPD and students. tell students to treat police with respect, express dismay @ alleged improper uses of force. nice psafe guy just came by to make sure we didn’t need medical assistance, telling us how to get rid of pepper spray.“that was the most fucked up thing I’ve ever seen”

“Roth came to fountain, he didn’t say much but for people to come tomorrow and file complaints to his office”

didn’t mention this earlier: the first guy who got arrested was chased down the street and tackled by at least 4 mpd.

final count was 16 cop cars (mostly mpd, a few staties at corner of fountain and church). 2 dogs. we hear people got bitten but not sure

music is over now. a few clusters of students still on street talking about what happened

it’s late, i’m going to get off this porch.(i know my name is on this post but it was me and will switching the computer back and forth)

—–xue 3:39 am: will just called. there are dozens of wesleyan students at the middletown police department right now. if you go down right now to file a complaint, you’ll be in good company. also, ANYONE WITH PHYSICAL WOUNDS FROM A POLICE ALTERCATION SHOULD GO DOWN TO THE POLICE DEPT TO GET PHOTOGRAPHED AND DOCUMENTED.

Holly and I wanted to co-author a goodbye post in Google Documents like the good ole days. However, as some of you might remember, when Blogger migrated to Google, Holly’s account somehow got inexplicably tied to the Wesleying account so now when you log in under Wesleying for anything Google-related, you end up under Holly’s name and vice versa. Then, when one of you fuckers hacked the Wesleying account a few months back, Holly, in a fit of fury, changed the password to something ridiculously secure. AND THEN FORGOT IT. So, way to go 1337 H4XX0RZ and way to go Holly. Seriously.

Long story short: Holly and I are going to Boston. We are both going to be working, in some capacity, for the University-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named. If you’d like to donate some quarters to help us buy cambridgesmellslikeass.com, my wesbox is 92990.

As for Wesleying, it’s scary what our little enfant terrible has become. Somewhere, I have written down a list of goals for this blog and they were something like: Post every day for a month. Get 400 hits per day. Be mentioned in the Argus. What I’ve learned: Set your sights low. That, and the next time you’re awake at 3am and kind of drunk and want to start a blog/clothing company/organic pornography co-op, fucking go for it. This kind of turned into a best-case scenario. Worst-case scenario? The ACB.

So to all you people who have been with us from the beginning: Thank you! It’s been a wild trip. And for those of you just joining us: Good luck on finals, welcome to Wesleyan, see you during senior week, you should join Wesleying next year, I wish we could have met. We’re leaving this blog to you.

If for some reason you don’t want to donate to Waste Not, I spotted the first pod of the year on Church St. by Weshop. Drop off your unwanted stuff and pick up something you’d like!

EDIT for the frosh:

This is a pod. It’s basically a dorm room-sized box that anyone can put shit in. People put clothes, CDs, paintings, shoes, furniture, inflatable sheep, houseplants, literally whatever you can think of, etc., in them. Other people can then go in and take whatever they want.

Why won’t you call in your name pronunciation? For us it seems a simple request. Now Wesleyan dollars that could be used for scholarships, paying workers, providing community resources, etc. need to be used to track you down and get you to call in. NEVER have so many seniors refused to let the name readers know how to pronounce their names. I am bewildered. Please call in your name. Call 685-2005.

Suzanne O’ConnellFaculty Marshall

Edit: My housemate just reminded me about how they accidentally DELETED ALL THE MESSAGES from the first round of people who called in…